Last year, I wrote a lengthy post about creating new documents. When you’re about to save a new document, most applications show a popup window with a tiny version of the operating system’s file browser to let you choose a place, name, and format for your new document

This seems like a vestigial feature from times when computers were not powerful enough to hold more than one application in memory. As a result, applications had to use the tiny file manager to replicate some of the features of the real file manager.

Some applications have found simpler solutions. Pixelmator’s export window, for exmple, simply lets you drag the little image icon to a Finder window to save it there.

Similarly, Keith Lang and Cris Pearson’s1 awesome screenshot and picture sharing tool Skitch has a little proxy icon at the bottom of its main window where you can set the name and format of the picture, and then simply drag it wherever you want to save it.

In many cases, simply dragging an icon to save a document is much more convenient than using the «save document» file browser and searching for a directory whose window you’ve probably already opened in the Finder.

What’s more, you don’t necessarily have to drag pictures to the Finder. Instead, you can also drag them to any other application that accepts files. For example, you can drag Skitch’s proxy icon into an FTP client’s open window, thus uploading the picture directly, without taking a detour through your local file system.

Want to read more like this? Buy my book's second edition! Designed for Use: Create Usable Interfaces for Applications and the Web is now available DRM-free directly from The Pragmatic Programmers. Or you can get it on Amazon, where it's also available in Chinese and Japanese.

Hi. My name is Lukas Mathis. I studied Computer Science/Software Engineering and Ergonomics/Usability at ETH Zürich. I work as a software engineer and user interface designer for a swiss software company creating process management software. I've written a book about usability. It's been translated to Chinese and Japanese. My first computer was a Performa 450, my first programming language was HyperTalk, my first electric guitar was a cheap Peavey, my first videogame was a VCS 2600 and my current snowboard is from Lib Tech. I live in a small cottage in a remote part of the Swiss Alps, and you can reach me at or on twitter.